Dyslexia affects scores of people around the world. The disorder is generally characterized by a difficulty comprehending patterns of letters and the sounds that they make, despite a normal level of intelligence and physical ability. Those afflicted with dyslexia often have trouble with spelling, reading, rhyming, and articulating letter sounds.
Dyslexia generally involves a phonological ineptitude, which is a difficulty understanding and decoding letter sounds. Those who have dyslexia are unable to effectively identify letter sounds and communicate with them, such as by reading and writing. A specific example of a phonological difficulty is trouble with phonemes, the smallest elements of speech that convey a unique meaning. Commonly, dyslexics may make reading errors such as phonetic and mirror image errors. Phonetic errors may occur, for example, when an individual cannot match a sound that they hear to a pattern of letters that they see. For example, if a person hears the word “flat,” they may confuse it with the word “falt,” when viewed on paper. Mirror image errors may occur when a person confuses two words that are spelled backwards with respect to each other. For example, a person with mirror image difficulties may confuse “tag” and “gat.”
While the precise cause of dyslexia is debated, it is commonly accepted that early detection of the disorder combined with specialized education can greatly improve the verbal abilities, such as reading comprehension, of dyslexics. Unfortunately, the symptoms of dyslexia are often not detected, or are confused with other learning disabilities. When the symptoms are not detected, those suffering from dyslexia are forced to cope with the disorder without treatments that could significantly improve their verbal abilities. When dyslexia is mistaken for a different learning disability or disorder, ineffective treatments may be given and medication may be used unnecessarily.
The prospects of improving a dyslexic's verbal abilities are greatest if the disorder is detected at an early age. If the disorder is detected in an individual's childhood, when the language areas of the brain are still developing, the effectiveness of treatment is highest. Furthermore, detecting dyslexia early in life allows an individual with the disorder to benefit from treatment at an early age, which provides benefits in both educational and social contexts. Presently, however, common techniques for detecting dyslexia are expensive, hard to obtain, and sometimes difficult to access.